Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival

Everyone told us that it rains every year for the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival, but we thought we'd try our luck anyway, and we got 3-day passes for the music festival last weekend. And it rained EVERY single day. The festival is held on the rugby grounds, so it is all grass and dirt normally. This festival attracted about 15,000-17,000 people per day (it went for 5 days from noon until midnight), so you can imagine, after the first day of rain, it was just a big pile of mud. I have never been so dirty in my life. Luckily Colin had a great idea of wearing my Crocs (rubber shoes), but even then, it took me about 10 minutes to scrub my feet clean at night. The mud was so thick and slippery, by night time, people were just falling down everywhere. It was actually very funny by the end of it.


We got to see a lot of really good Australian bands, but much to our disappointment, Dave Matthews, who was supposed to play on Friday night, cancelled at the last minute. So, we went into the festival with a semi-bad attitude. Then, with the rain on top of it, we were sort of regretting spending $500 on our tickets. But, then it all changed when there was a suprise appearance by Jack Johnson, who just showed up because the loves this festival so much. It was great. And it was a very well kept secret - nobody knew he was going to play until he just appeared on stage. Colin and I were actually at another stage when he came on, and we saw people sprinting toward this other stage (there were 4 stages). Colin and I decided we didn't really want to watch anyone who was playing at that time, so we walked over to the food booths to get some wedges, and just happened to walk by that stage. As we walked by, Colin said "That's Jack Johnson." I thought he was being sarcastic, and I said "That's so lame. They replaced Dave Matthews with someone who's covering Jack Johnson?!?" And then we realized it actually was Jack Johnson - YAY! So, it was a great suprise, and he put on a great concert.


In the end, we had a great time. Here's a few pictures from the festival.


Ben & Colin (before it got muddy); me & Colin after Jack Johnson; me & Mel after a few drinks :)